Hillary Clinton Takes Credit For Appointing Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ‘I May Have Expressed An Opinion Or Two’
Former First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton seemed to take at least some of the credit for her husband’s nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court during his presidency.
Clinton made the comments on Wednesday during an appearance alongside her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and Ginsburg at an event at Georgetown Law in Washington, D.C., CNN reported.
“I knew that of all the people who were part of the women’s movement she was one of the key players because of her creative understanding of the law and her sense of commitment,” Hillary Clinton said. “I may have expressed an opinion or two about the people he should bring to the top of the list.”
Per CNN, the former Obama-era secretary of state and her husband – the former president – discussed Ginsburg’s time on the Supreme Court in addition to her path to reach it. The conversation reportedly centered around Ginsburg’s career rise in the face of gender discrimination, an issue Ginsburg has tackled as a justice on the court.
President Clinton appointed Ginsburg to the nation’s highest court in 1993 following her appointment in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Oyez writes. Ginsburg was just the second woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court, following Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Former President Clinton said Wednesday that he knew he wanted to appoint Ginsburg to the court after spending just 10 minutes with her, following a secret meeting they shared at the White House. Ginsburg reportedly joked about her age at the time of her appointment – 60 – noting that if had anyone had concerns at the time, they were clearly unfounded.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, the 86-year-old justice has dealt with health issues in recent months. Back in August, the Supreme Court announced that Ginsburg had undergone radiation therapy for three weeks in order to treat cancerous tumors found on her pancreas. Ginsburg reportedly responded well to the treatment and there were no further signs of the disease following the radiation.
“This audience can see that I am alive. And I am on my way to being very well,” Ginsburg, who has been a member of the court for more than two decades, said in August.
Ginsburg is often viewed as the most senior liberal voice on the Supreme Court, particularly amid the two justices who have been appointed during President Trump’s tenure – Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Per Oyez, Ginsburg has spent her time on the court ruling “slow but steady, and calculated.” The former first lady reportedly had unkind words for Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on Wednesday, arguing that the Trump-appointed justices were pushed through to the court without relevant experience.
